APJ Abdul Kalam: Judiciary is the guardian of civilised life

Indian society has a mixed population, mainly of two categories - those who know their rights and duties and those who don’t know their rights. Population in the second category is high in India. Court of Law and Judicial System have to work to protect the rights of the citizens. In such a situation, justice has to be oriented towards providing better access to all the people who are not aware of their own rights. Access to justice has to be sensitive to the unique dynamics of Indian people. We need to provide accessibility to justice for everyone in time, in a user friendly manner.

Indian ethos advocates a moral living without crime. They always emphasize that crime does not pay - justice always wins. While we have to provide easy access to justice for every citizen, we should also work for propagating our ethos particularly in our youth, that will minimize crime leading to protection of human rights.

I see that the theme of the seminar centers around Article 39-A of the Constitution of India. This article listed under the Directive Principles of State Policy provides that “The State shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities.” The first question, therefore, which we have to ask ourselves is the measure upto which we have been able to come up to the yardstick laid out in Article 39-A of the Constitution. Have we been able to provide justice on the basis of equal opportunity and more importantly, have we been able to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to the common citizen.

Every citizen in the country has a right to live with dignity; every citizen has a right to aspire for distinction. Availability of a large number of opportunities to resort to just and fair means in order to attain that dignity and distinction, is what democracy is all about. That is what our Constitution is all about. And that is what makes life wholesome and worth living in a true and vibrant democracy.

At this point, I would like to remind all of us that at social levels it is necessary to work for Unity of Minds. The increasing intolerance for views of others and increasing contempt about ways of lives of others or their religions or the expressions of these differences through lawless violence against people cannot be justified in any context.

All of us have to work hard and do everything to make our behaviours civilised to protect the rights of every individual. That is the very foundation of the democratic values, which I believe is our civilisational heritage and is the very soul of our nation. Judiciary is the guardian of civilised life. Hence, nobility is the foundation of judiciary.